


I Like Your Body (and words and mind and soul)

by slashsailing



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Blow Jobs, Fluff, M/M, Poetry, Professor/Student Affair, Rimming, Sexual Content, Smut, Teen Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-12
Updated: 2013-10-12
Packaged: 2017-12-29 05:33:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1001607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slashsailing/pseuds/slashsailing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leonard is a medical student and he clearly doesn't want to be in Jim's poetry lecture. Jim can't fathom how a kid who is obviously as smart as McCoy can completely ignore everything he says. How does this turn into a love affair? Rather easily actually - until they're found out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Like Your Body (and words and mind and soul)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [losingmyangelgrace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/losingmyangelgrace/gifts).



> Wow I'm such a lit whore. This is what happens as the result of doing an English degree and falling in love with your Poetry seminar leader. + I saw fan art on tumblr which inspired this for sure: 
> 
> http://tribblesareperfection.tumblr.com/image/63753938328

 

 …

Jim doesn’t know what to say. Yes, he has been having an affair with a student. Yes, that student was  _technically_ a minor when they started said affair. But Jim didn’t  _know_ that. It had been a few weeks into the start of term; he couldn’t have known Bones had skipped a grade in middle school.

...

_The kid is eighteen, but he’s got to be the most infuriating eighteen year old Jim’s ever encountered. And Jim’s encountered a lot of eighteen year olds. He’s a university lecturer for Christ’s sake they’re a constant within his milieu. His name is McCoy. Leonard McCoy. Although he doesn’t look like a Leonard, he scowls too much to be as pompous as a Leonard is expected to be. He’s the sort of kid that probably grinds his teeth in his sleep and hates babies. Usually he sits at the back of Jim’s poetry lectures with his headphones in, he doesn’t take notes, instead he draws atomically correct hearts and bones and writes medical postulations._

_He’s doing an accelerated medical degree, a pre-med BA and then his MD, all in six years. So he must be smart. But Jim hasn’t seen any of that, because McCoy stays as quiet as a mouse in his lectures. Jim understands that bio-majors and the like don’t usually revel in their compulsory humanities classes but McCoy doesn’t have to take poetry. There are other classes he could take._

_“My lectures aren’t that boring, Leonard.” Jim says, plucking the ear bud right out of McCoy’s left ear. This is the last timetabled class of the day and Jim has been psyching himself up for a confrontation with the kid all day._

_“What?” McCoy frowns._

_“My lectures.” Jim says again. “Maybe if you actually listened to them you’d enjoy yourself.”_

_“Poetry isn’t my thing.” The kid admits with a huff. It’s like Jim’s presence is irritating him, and what’s worse is that McCoy seems to think Jim is doing this on purpose. Okay, so he is. But he is a lecturer and it is part of his job to garner his student’s interest._

_“Then you haven’t found the right poem yet.” Jim smiles._

_“Look, I don’t mean to be rude but I have to go.” McCoy says, plucking his ear bud back out of Jim’s hand and heading out of the lecture theatre._

...

Pike looks unimpressed. How did veritable distain turn into an elicit love affair? And how was Jim stupid enough to get caught? Jim doesn’t know the answer to either of those questions. Their first halfway pleasant encounter was just before Thanksgiving. Jim had been trying hard to win over Bones, trying to find the perfect poem, trying to help him craft essays worthy of his brain.

…

_“So you’re enjoying Lawrence?” Jim wonders._

_“_ Piano _reminds me of my mama.” McCoy nods. “I was reading the William Morris stuff you left in my locker.”_

_“And?” Jim says, making an amendment to the kid’s latest essay._

_“_ Love is Enough _, I don’t know if I think it’s mighty profound or just high faultin’.” McCoy admits. “But I liked it.”_

_“We’re broadening your horizon. And I noticed you actually take notes in my lectures now.” Jim grins._

_“You’re not so bad, really.” McCoy assures him with a small, almost bashful, smile._

…

Pike demands to know how that tentative trust turned into a regular fuck. How could Jim lose his head like that? He’s most likely going to lose his job… And student-teacher affairs never look good on one’s record. Jim doesn’t much care about his own job he just tries to get Bones out of the firing line.

…

 _They’re in Jim’s office, sitting on the comfy chairs by the door. Jim’s reading_ Madame Bovary _while Leonard does his most recently assigned comparative poetry essay. It’s the first time Jim is acutely aware that their relationship merges some of the student-teacher lines. He gives Leonard a sidelong glance, cataloguing the freckles scattered over his nose and cheeks and those murky green of his eyes ringed by that bright royal blue. Leonard has gorgeous eyes, not that Jim should ever be thinking along those lines, but it’s true. That coupled with his sun-kissed skin and his too plush lips._

 _“Are you alright, Professor?” Leonard snaps Jim from his reverie._ Professor; _yes. That’s him. He can’t entertain these silly little thoughts about a student. He’s had good looking students grace his classes before, it’s not a rare occurrence, there’s this engineering senior with eyes like two emeralds framed by bouncy red curls atop the body of a goddess, but he’d never… he couldn’t. He’s thirty two. He’s an adult. Regardless of their age, his students are still kids. “Professor?” Leonard says again._

_“I’m fine. Sorry.” Jim says. “Get lost in my own little world sometimes.” He adds, lifting his book as if that will explain his odd behaviour._

…

“I don’t understand, Jim.” Pike says honestly. “He’s nineteen; you’ve been having an affair for nearly two years. This isn’t something we can sweep under the rug.”

“It’s not just a fumble, Chris, I _care_ about him.”

…

_“We shouldn’t be doing this.” Jim says with a lap full of Leonard. The teen is straddled over Jim, knees on either side of Jim’s thighs, two slightly-shaky hands placed over Jim’s chest. Jim doesn’t let his hands slip from Leonard’s hips even though he knows he should. He brings their mouth together for a tentative press of lips, but this kid has lips like sin and even though he’s a clumsy kisser Jim just wants more._

_It’s late; they shouldn’t even be in Jim’s office still. It’s after hours. It’s only two days before the winter break. Then Leonard will be heading back to Georgia for two weeks. Maybe Jim can have this small indulgence, then he’ll have two weeks to clear his head – Leonard can transfer to a different lit course. They can move on. Just this one little luxury before he has to return to the real world._

_“Maybe not.” Leonard says when he pulls away. “But we are.”_

_…_

Pike talks about ethics, how lecturers are meant to encourage learning, be an authority figure, someone for the students to feel they can trust. Jim’s overstepped those boundaries, used his position to seduce a kid. Jim knows that isn’t how it went down but he can hardly say that now, can he?

…

_“You’re seventeen?” Jim hisses, pulling his shirt out of Leonard’s grasp and redoing the top few buttons that he’d managed to sneak undone._

_“Uh, yeah.” Leonard says. “I skipped eighth grade.”_

_“Oh God.” Jim says, blanching, trying to pull himself together after this kid has bulldozed through all of his defences. “This is, Jesus, you know this would be_ illegal _. You’re not even the age of consent.”_

_“I’ll be eighteen in four days. The age of consent is sixteen in Georgia.” Leonard huffs. “I’m not a child.”_

_“This is California.” Jim states. “Here you’re a child.”_

_“What’s in four days?” Leonard demands. “Am I gonna be any more an adult just because of a number?”_

_“I’m your_ professor, _Bones.” Jim says. “I can’t believe I even entertained this.”_

_“Bones?” Leonard scoffs._

_“You’re drawings.” Jim says by way of explanation. “And you’re pre-med.”_

_“You gave me a nickname?” He chuckles, his fringe falls in his eyes and Jim is helpless against brushing his finger’s over the teen’s forehead to sweep it to the side. Leonard starts to undo Jim’s shirt buttons again, pulling his loosened tie off all the way. Jim gulps. He feels like the kid here. He presses his lips to Leonard’s cheek and pulls the teen’s hands away by his wrists._

_“You can wait a couple days.” Jim says. “I just… I can’t.”_

_Leonard looks at him, rueful understanding in his hazel eyes. He’s a mature seventeen year old, he_ does _get it. Jim’s treading a fine line and Leonard can respect that. He steps back with a nod. “Okay.” He says. “But I’m holdin’ you to your word.”_

_…_

“So you waited until he was legal before you slept with him.” Pike scoffs. “How admirable.”

“Please, Chris.” Jim implores. “I _know_ I fucked up.”

“You don’t think normal procedure applies to you Jim, you haven’t got a humble bone in your body. You can’t walk away from this because you’ll never learn.”

…

_They go back to Jim’s apartment; it definitely shows his $120K salary. It’s slick, suave, everything Jim demonstrates himself to be. Leonard says he would have guessed this is what the professor’s home would have looked like._

_“It suits you.” He adds. But Jim can see that under that gruff pretence Bones is nervous. Jim hadn’t really thought about it until now but maybe Leonard’s never done this before. Jim’s brought him back to his lair for the sole purpose of sex without thinking that he’s going to have to deal with the emotional fallout of this eighteen year old’s first sexual encounter. Jim finds he doesn’t mind too much where Leonard’s concerned. It’s Saturday tomorrow… there’s no rush._

_They order take out and Jim puts on a comedy channel,_ Friends _episodes are rerunning. They sit together on the sofa and it’s slightly awkward at first. They throw hesitant glances at each other, pick at the noodles they’ve ordered. Jim feels nervous now too. He’s never nervous about sex._ Never _. But Bones throws everything off kilter, his world isn’t the way it was five months ago, this bitchy, grumpy teen has turned everything on its head._

_It’s sort of intoxicating, not knowing how things will go. The novelty of everything. Maybe hanging around Leonard has made him revert back to his eighteen year old recklessness – it’s arousing._

_The making out comes easy. Bones straddling him is par for the course by this point. But then Bones is pulling away slightly so that Jim can lift his t-shirt over his head and Jim’s heart is pounding as he’s met with the sight of smooth, tanned skin, young and untouched. Jim feels like a God – having Bones under his finger-tips, manipulating little gasps of pleasure out from between the teen’s lips as he kisses a trail over Bones’ clavicle._

…

It spiralled from there. They sought each other out whenever they could. Bones slipped into Jim’s office, learnt how to give the perfect blowjob under the desk while Jim pretended to be coherently grading papers. Jim ended up climbing in the window of Bones’ dorm like the teenager he wasn’t… Sneaking out before Sunday turned to Monday and classes started up again.

Pike looks more and more livid by the second.

“Don’t turn this into some coming-of-age romance story Jim! This isn’t one of your novels. This is real life.” He barks.

…

 _Bones is kissing around Jim’s navel, Jim can’t see him because he’s ducked under the covers but he can feel the light brush of lips and the slight lick of a tongue. Jim just wants to lie here forever. They shouldn’t be doing this… They’re going in too deep. Jim should be back in Iowa for the reading week, Bones should be in his dorm studying. But instead there is a draw full of his clothes in Jim’s wardrobe and they’ve been in bed for the best part of the last three days. It’s the last week of February. Everything has moved so_ fast _. It’s like being dragged down stream by the current, but Jim’s not afraid of drowning._

 _Jim pulls the covers back and watches as Bones’ perfect-pillow lips wrap around the head of his cock. Jim doesn’t know whether to cry or go blind – both seem like an under-reaction. Bones really is a fast learner… His abilities in regards to giving head have developed_ _immeasurably i_ _n the last month – Jim can only thank any deity that will listen and lie back and take it._

_Once Leonard has rendered Jim a sated, boneless, wreck he curls into him, burying his head into Jim’s throat and whispering dirty things that sound even filthier coming hot and heavy in that deep honey-sweet accent._

_“God Bones, you’d make a saint lose it.” Jim sighs._

_“And you ain’t no saint.” Bones smirks._

_No. Jim isn’t a saint. Lord knows he isn’t. And he gives Bones the rim job of his life to prove it. Tongue swirling and probing until Leonard’s thighs are quaking from the pressure building in his abdomen, pooling in his groin. Bones makes the sweetest noises, breathy gasps, he sounds like every touch comes as a surprise and he mewls and keens for more. He arches his back further, presenting his tortured little hole to Jim’s tongue, begging for some sort of release._

_…_

“I love him, Chris.” Jim says finally. “I won’t make excuses but I’m not going to lie to you and say it’ll stop, that I’ll break it off. Because I won’t.”

“You’re so arrogant, so insolent. I thought you were a clever man, James. I thought you were going to make good.” Pike snaps his disappointment with a sigh and a shake of the head.

…

_They’re lying together on the floor; naked save for a satin blanket Jim’s mother brought him as a housewarming gift. It’s coming close to Spring break and Leo is going to have to go back to Georgia for it. Jim doesn’t begrudge Georgia a week or so of his lover, Jim’s nephews are coming to stay and so his mind will be occupied by familial love as he tries to salvage the relationship between him and his brother. Bones deserves to bask in the Georgian sun, gorge himself on homemade peach cobbler and have the kisses of his proud mother peppered over his cheeks._

_Jim wants Bones to be able to relax on the sand of Savannah, watching the world pass. He’ll be able to study better without Jim’s hands and voice to distract him. He’s got exams to ace. Jim has family to look after. Their age difference is evident at times like this, when Jim aligns their priorities to look for parallels that don’t exist._

_“I carry your heart with me.” Leo says, kissing Jim’s shoulder. “I carry it in my heart.” He adds, kissing the blond’s biceps. “I am never without it, anywhere I go you go, my dear.” He finishes, looking up through his thick lashes, basking in Jim’s warm smile._

_“And whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling. I fear.” Jim finishes softly, like recounting a dream. “Are you reciting love poetry, Bones?”_

_“You like Cummings.” Bones huffs simply, hiding his face behind Jim’s arm. “I’m bein’ romantic.”_

_“Nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility.” Jim whispers._

_“It sounds better when you say it.”_

…

Pike is disappointed by Jim’s sentimentality. Did Leonard only manage to pass the course because he was fucking the professor? That makes Jim angry. Bones worked his ass off to maintain his four point oh average. If anything, Jim marked him harsher to try and bring out the best in Bones.

…

_“I missed you.” Jim whispers after the lecture has ended. Bones has told his friends he’ll catch up with them, dawdled while trying to organise his bag and Jim has made his way up the middle aisle of the now-empty lecture hall. Jim’s standing behind Bones, hands gently resting over his hips. He’s wearing that black cashmere jumper that Bones adores. The teen nonchalantly lets his neck roll back into Jim’s shoulder, accepting the quick, chaste pecks Jim places onto his jaw. He rolls his eyes at Jim who’s trying not to smirk._

_“Missed you too.” Bones admits begrudgingly._

_“I guess you’re probably busy tonight, or did you write all your assignments up already. Ensure you were free to spend the night getting reacquainted with my cock?” Jim hisses, nipping at the flesh of Bones’ cheek._

_“Jesus, Jim.” Bones huffs, shrugging away from the professor and heaving his backpack onto his shoulder. He looks up to the doors at each corner of the room and sighs. “We’ve gotta be careful.”_

_“Meet me later. Stay at mine for the week.” Jim urges.” I’ll buy pizza?” He singsongs, eye glinting devilishly._

_“You’re an idiot.” Bones huffs with that small begrudging smile._

_“You love it.” Jim smirks. “Swing by my office at six.”_

_…_

“So then what happens, he practically moves in with you and you both live happily ever after?” Pike questions.

“Would you believe me if I said: pretty much?” Jim wonders.

“Except it hasn’t worked out, Jim!” Pike barks. “The kid’s mother found out and now you’re facing a formal complaint. You are _so_ lucky you didn’t fuck him when he was seventeen because you could be charged for corrupting a minor.”

…

_“What are we going to do for summer break?” Bones asks, whisking eggs while Jim sits on the other side of the counter trying to chop mushrooms. Why Bones insists on making everything from scratch is beyond him but he acquiesces, he always does. Bones has him wrapped around his little finger._

_“You could stay here, unless you’re going home.” Jim says._

_“This is home, isn’t it? By now anyway.” Bones says, looking at Jim with one raised eyebrow._

_“I suppose so.” Jim nods. “Don’t even know why you pay to be in dorms.”_

_“It’ll raise too many questions if I suddenly move out.” Bones shrugs. “I’ve told my parents I’ll be home for three weeks at the end of August. They think I’m volunteering at the hospital.”_

_“That’s actually a good idea.” Jim says. “You should see if you can actually do that. Your medical lecturers will love you, maybe you’ll get extra credit.”_

_“I guess. It’ll keep me busy I suppose.” Bones nods._

_“And you’ll stay here? Until you have to go back to Georgia?” Jim asks._

_“Yeah, I guess I will.”_

_…_

“But you both got careless, started to forget yourselves?” Pike wonders.

“I guess so. Spending so much time together, it became a fully-fledged relationship and then we had to learn to hide it all over again. It was strange when lecturers started back up again, we had to adapt.” Jim explains.

…

_“Perhaps Keats is utilising the form of a sonnet to suggest the weight their love has. He’s so immersed and overwhelmed by their love he assumes the role of Paolo, “pale” is suggestive of love-sickness, as if Keats is almost pained like they were. It’s in complete contrast to Dante who condemns the love. For Keats maybe the forbidden nature of it, the fact that they’re practically the underdogs, makes it all the more powerful.” Bones says from his usual position at the back of the class. Jim can’t help smiling._

_“But the tone of the poem, the emphasis on sorrow, on the melancholic… what would you say in response to that?” Jim prompts._

_“Well he’s empathetic to their plight. Their eternal un-fulfilment saddens him.” Bones shrugs._

_“Are we all in agreement?” Jim looks around the lecture halls, most of the students are still watching Bones, the med student that never really participates in the lecture, just writes pages of notes and aces essays because he’s just too damn clever. They slowly start to nod and turn back to Jim who begins talking about another Keats poem for comparison and then the lecture continues._

_…_

Pike wants to know how they managed to make it work. How can Jim possibly get anything from a nineteen year old whose been nowhere and seen nothing? Jim doesn’t answer. Usually he likes his partners well-versed, travelled, exotic in some way, like-minded. Bones goes against everything Jim thought he needed in a partner. And he’s all the more perfect because of it.

…

_“You’re such an infant.” Bones huffs, slamming the cupboard door as he puts the crockery he’s dried up back wherever it belongs._

_“Oh yeah.” Jim scoffs. “_ I’m _the infant.”_

_“Don’t Jim.” Bones states. “Don’t even go there. I might be eighteen but at least I act my age.”_

_“Are you being serious?” Jim questions. “Are you really making a thing of this?”_

_“I’m makin’ a_ thing _of the fact you bring my age into everythin’. It was your choice to start up a sordid love affair with a student Jim… I don’t throw your age back in your face, we’d be here a long fucking time if I did.” He mutters._

 _“Did you just call me old?” Jim scoffs. “Oh my_ God _you can be a little asshole sometimes.”_

_“Fuck you.” Bones huffs, storming out of the kitchen, and then out of the apartment._

_…_

“He sounds smarter than you.” Pike huffs. “D’you guys fight often.”

“No. And it’s usually over stupid shit like that.” Jim says. “Bones is hot-headed though and stubborn.”

“And doesn’t that sound familiar.” Pike scoffs.

…

 _“Fuck me.” Bones begs, thighs pressed into the edge of the desk. “Jesus, Jim,_ please _.”_

_“God, Bones.” Jim moans, two lube-coated fingers pulling out of Bones for the last time before he slicks himself and presses into that tight heat. “Fuck.”_

_They’re rocking against the desk, trying to keep the decibel level down. Then Jim’s heart is in his throat when the door handle is turned. The door is locked. But he’s still got his trousers around his knees and a student bouncing on his dick._

_“Shh.” Jim whispers into Bones’ throat, standing stock still._

_“Professor Kirk?” The calls come from the other side of the door. He knows that student, Nyota Uhura, she’s a linguist, enjoys the development of language in literature, clever in looking for the double meanings of words. A sophisticated writer._

_Jim doesn’t reply, doesn’t try and make an excuse. Hopefully she’ll think he’s not in office, or that he’s listen to his iPod too loud and she’ll come back later._

_She knocks one last time and then gives up._

_…_

“How many more times were you almost caught before his mother found out?” Pike asks.

“Four.” Jim says. “I think Mister Spock was the one that contacted Eleanor McCoy.”

“Better to have loved and lost, Jim.” Pike says gently. “Let him transfer and you’ll keep your job.”

…

_“I hate Tennyson.” Bones says. “What kinda drugs was this guy even on?” Bones is flinging his poetry anthology around the place, pencil tucked behind his ear. “Why would you even set this?”_

_“Tennyson is beautiful Bones.” Jim smiles, throwing his jacket over the back of the sofa. “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you. I could walk through my garden forever.” Jim promises, kissing Bones nose and plucking the anthology from his hands._

_“That’s not from his poetry. It’s from that ridiculous play you made me read.” Bones huffs, letting Jim kiss his throat._

_“Did you finish your medical ethics essay?” Jim asks._

_“Uh huh.” Bones breathes, undoing the buttons of his jeans._

_“And the Cardiology part for your practical portfolio?” Jim prompts teasingly._

_“Yep.” Bones huffs. “All done, completely done. Tennyson’s the only thing I’ve got left.”_

_“Well I’m sure your professor won’t mind it being done tomorrow.” Jim says, hand curling around Bones, whose whimper turns into an expletive._

…

“He’s not transferring, this is a brilliant university and he’s not going to get the accelerated course anywhere else. Can’t he just transfer his humanities elective…? Do a Shakespeare course or something? Then I wouldn’t be his lecturer, and it wouldn’t matter. It’ll only be one more year, and then he’ll be doing the MD part of his course and have nothing to do with the humanities department.” Jim says.

“Jim you don’t seem to understand that the damage is already done. His mother is threatening to go to the press. She wants you gone. I’m trying to help you. I’m on your side.” Pike huffs.

“ _My_ side? I want to be with him Chris. If it means I lose my job then I lose my job. There’s other teaching posts.” Jim says.

“None of which you’ll get if this is on your record.” Pike states.

“What do you want me to do?” Jim yells.

“I want you to convince him to transfer, get him to convince his mother that there was no affair, that she doesn’t need to go to the press, I’ll deal with Mister Spock.” Pike says. “I want you to forget about him.”

“I’m not going to do that.” Jim says.

…

_“I love you.” Bones says, he’s just turned nineteen. He passed all his winter term exams. He’s basking in the glow of his own brilliance and it’s keeping Jim warm what with the cold winter chill infesting the apartment._

_“I love you too.” Jim assures him, pulling him closer to kiss his temple._

_…_

Jim can’t talk to Bones anyway. The teen refuses to see him. Pike says it’s probably for the best, he’s got a meeting with Mrs McCoy now and he’s going to do his best for Jim but Jim has to stay away from Leonard McCoy. There is no way Jim can hope to keep his job if he keeps stoking the flames.

…

_“I can’t see you anymore.” Bones says at the end of the spring term. It’s March; they’ve been seeing each other for over a year – just shy of fourteen months. It’s all going fine. This has come so far from left field Jim’s got whiplash trying to track its trajectory. “My mother knows.” Bones says with a frown._

_“What?” Jim scoffs. “I don’t-“_

_“I don’t know how but she does. She, ah, she’s coming up here. She hasn’t told Daddy yet but she said she will if I don’t get this sorted.” Bones says and then, when Jim looks at him, he looks like the nineteen year old child that he is. That Jim’s been having sex with for more than a year._

_“Shit.” Jim sighs. He’s just turned thirty four. He can’t imagine what Eleanor McCoy thinks of him. What any mother who think of a man who is happy to sleep with someone fifteen years his junior. “We can try and explain-”_

_“We can’t.” Bones shakes his head. “I have to go, I’ll email you my assignment.”_

_“Bones!” Jim calls but the teen is resolute enough to not turn around. To not give in._

…

Jim leaves the office and Eleanor McCoy and Bones are waiting on the plush chairs of the foyer. He hasn’t seen Bones in nearly two months, what with the Spring Break and with how busy Pike would have inevitably been. This must have been his first chance to deal with Mrs McCoy’s complaint. Jim smiles at Bones because he can’t help himself, just the sight of the freckled cheeks and the hazel eyes make his knees weak. Bones has two medical texts clutched to his chest; he must have just come out of a lecture. Jim ducks his head. He can feel the blush creep up his neck as Bones stares at him.

Eleanor gives his shoulder a gentle tap and Bones tears his gaze away, she frowns at him and he murmurs what Jim assumes to be an apology. Then Jim sees it - his copy of an E.E. Cummings Selected Poetry collection. It’s on the top of the pile. Jim wonders what the last poem he read was.

 “Bones!” Jim calls. Pike is standing outside his office door looking as if he’s going to intervene at any moment. Eleanor McCoy is trying to guide her son away by the shoulder.

“Don’t Jim.” Bones says gently.

“You’re still reading.” Jim says, tipping his head in the direction of the book.

“You can have it back if you want.” Bones huffs.

“That’s not what I want.” Jim says. “What was the last one you read?”

“I like my body.” Bones replies.

“I like to feel the spine of your body and its bones, and the trembling-firm-smooth ness and which I will again and again and again kiss.” Jim whispers.

“I like kissing this and that of you.” Bones returns softly.

“Don’t let Pike force you into a transfer.” Jim says. “You deserve to be here. I should have known better, should have acted my age.”

“I prefer it when you don’t.” Bones smirks. Eleanor McCoy looks as if she might snap and just as she opens her mouth Jim turns his gaze to her, inclining his head politely.

“I’m very sorry if you think I’ve taken advantage Mrs McCoy, you’re son means a lot to me and I don’t regret our relationship. I do hope you won’t let your opinion of me alter the reputation of this university, though. Pike runs a great institution and Bones thrives here.” Jim says, his professional face on.

“Bones?” She inquires, her eyes look less cross now that he’s standing so close.

“He used to have trouble paying attention in my class.” Jim admits. “He’s quite the artist.”

“He draws when he can’t concentrate.” She says with a strange smile. “Maybe he found you distracting, you are quite striking.”

“ _Mama_.” Bones huffs, blushing.

“He’s not what I imagined.” She says to her son. “He’s rather taken with you.”

“I am.” Jim says. “But I know the way I’ve acted is grossly unprofessional.”

“Yes.” She nods. “And I’d rather you weren’t thirty odd. I mean, I’m only forty-six myself. And my husband certainly won’t be happy. But he’s not a boy anymore. He’ll be twenty in six months. I was under the impression you were something of a Casanova, that perhaps you made a habit of this sort of thing. It appears I didn’t have all the correct information.”

“Mrs McCoy perhaps we should discuss this inside.” Pike says, stepping closer.

“It’s alright professor Pike. I’ll let you handle this however your procedure dictates. An internal matter for your discretion, I hope?” She says with a small quirk of her lips.

“I’ll certainly make sure Leonard is no longer a student of Jim’s.” He assures her. “Although I have every faith your son has earned his literature grade.”

“No doubt about it.” She smiles. “He’s a McCoy.”

“Yes ma’am.” Pike nods.

…

Jim holds Bones that night. Reacquainting himself with the body he’s missed for what seems like an age. Bones appears to hum with unbridled energy, kissing whatever part of Jim’s skin his lips can find. Sometimes Jim is embarrassed with how much of a romantic he is, how he’s enthralled by Bones because their love story seems such a miracle.

“Possibly I like the thrill…” Bones whispers into Jim’s hipbone.

“Of under me you so quite new.” Jim grins, arching his back to Bones’ touch. “Who knew I’d make a lit whore out of you?”

“You can make anything you want outta me, Jim.” Bones admits.

“I just want you.” Jim promises.

“Then that’s what you’ll have.”

_…_


End file.
